The Cartographers’ Guild is a forum created by and for map makers and aficionados, a place where every aspect of cartography can be admired, examined, learned, and discussed. Our membership consists of professional designers and artists, hobbyists, and amateurs—all are welcome to join and participate in the quest for cartographic skill and knowledge.

Although we specialize in maps of fictional realms, as commonly used in both novels and games (both tabletop and role-playing), many Guild members are also proficient in historical and contemporary maps. Likewise, we specialize in computer-assisted cartography (such as with GIMP, Adobe apps, Campaign Cartographer, Dundjinni, etc.), although many members here also have interest in maps drafted by hand.

If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ. You will have to register before you can post or view full size images in the forums.

Some old Traveller Maps

I thought I'd post some older stuff that I did (these were in Gimp). They were for Prison Planet - a Traveller adventure by Mongoose Publishing. It's one of my few stabs at Sci-fi mapping and was certainly done at a point when I was learning a lot. Looking back, there are many things I would have done differently - more computer generated textures and regular patterns for one. Sci-fi certainly looks better with perfectly regular edges and structures so my hand drawn commitment might not have served these so well. Anyway, I thought these might be interesting.

Those are cool - I especially like the Alien Outpost one. That's one thing about art, as long as you are getting better you always look back and say, "I would do that differently if I was to do it now".

Personally, I am finding that while I try to use the software for a lot of stuff I don't always care for it except for coloring. There are a few really neat features it can do, mosaics and so on but it seems like when I draw it by hand and port something in, that hand drawn portion looks so much better than the rest. So, I'm still trying to find my balance between hand vs. computer produced effects. I have to think some of that is my not totally understanding what my software can do. I've been really thinking about getting a book and reading it.

“When it’s over and you look in the mirror, did you do the best that you were capable of? If so, the score does not matter. But if you find that you did your best you were capable of, you will find it to your liking.” -John Wooden

I've found that starting off doing everything purely by hand was a good discipline - then I've been able to identify the areas that take the most time, and tried to find good ways to get the software to do the heavy lifting. Here I'd say that I should have done the hatched fence shadows with a pattern and a perspective transform.

The alien outpost was fun - it gave me a chance to do a spaceship - which is always cool.

Yeah I like that ship. I forgot to say it but I've been leaning towards going the entirely hand drawn route myself just because it seems to pan out better. Haven't done it yet. If I get a tablet that might push me over the edge though....got an Anniversary coming up soon

“When it’s over and you look in the mirror, did you do the best that you were capable of? If so, the score does not matter. But if you find that you did your best you were capable of, you will find it to your liking.” -John Wooden

All are lovely, but the Ground Level Plan is my fave. Seeing these reminds me that I spent years writing a traveller adventure (it's now up to page 60 or something) and made the fatal mistake of putting it down and starting something else, so I never quite finished it. I must go back to it. LOL! I remember now, I put it to one side because I had some maps to draw for it and I wanted to improve my mapping. That was about 5 years ago.

Yep, the ground level one is fun. It needs more detail in the roofs - they're a bit too loose really. There should be some industrial detail that suggests what they're made of. Also, some grunging of the surrounding terrain would have helped. It's interesting to post some older stuff and see things that I would do differently.